Typewriter



Jan. 21, 1958 B. RAAK 2,820,539

- TYFEWRITER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 22, 1955 INVENTOIR. BEA/TL) P/MK B. RAAK 2,820,539

TYPEWRITER 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Jan. 21, 1958 Filed Aug. 22, 1955 wrh g B. RAAK TYPEWRITER Jan 21, 1958 Filed Aug. 22, 1955 3 ShQets-Sheet 3 3 VIII/II INVEN TOR. 55mm) 1844K United States Patent G TYPEWRITER I Bently Raak, Roselle, N. J., assignor to Vari-Typer Corporation, Newark, N. J., a corporation of Beiaware Application August 22, 1955, Serial No. 529,840

12 Claims. (Cl. 197-135) This invention relates to typewriters, and more partic- 1 ularly to a typewriter for typing on cards which are subsequently to be used in photographically composing printed matter.

In one method of composition of printed matter, which is particularly useful for directories and other listings, a single line is typed on a card, and a series of such cards is subsequently successively photographed one by one to compose a listing in column form. The card may be provided with a pair of holes which receive pilotpins while the card is being photographed so as to locate the typed. line very accurately with respect to the preceding andfollowing lines in the composition and preserveextremely accurate alignment. The present invention relatesto a typewriter for receiving a card, punching holes in the card, and then typing a single line on the card while the punches are engaged within the holes in the card sons to locate the typed line with respect to the holes with the utmost accuracy. The invention has been shown as applied to a rear-strike typewriter known in the trade as the Vari-Typer, manufactured by the Vari-Typer Corporation but certain aspects of the invention are suitable for application to typewriters broadly.

Among the objects of the present invention are to provide a typewriter and method for punching holes at the time a card is inserted in the typewriter for typing a line thereon, the holes in the card subsequently serving to locate the card for photographing, to provide such a typewriter in which the punches may be left engaged within the holes in the card during the typing to hold the card, and to provide such a construction which is particularly adapted for rear-strike typewriters.

Other objects and the nature and scope of the invention will be more apparent from the detailed description to follow:

My invention is clearly defined in the appended claims. In the claims, as well as in the description, parts may at times be identified by specific names for clarity and convenience, but such nomenclature is to be understood as having the broadest meaning consistent with the context and with the concept of my invention as distinguished from the pertinent prior art. The best mode in which I have contemplated carrying out my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, in which:

Fig. 1 of the drawings is an isometric view of a typewriter according to the present invention, only a few of the type keys being shown and a portion of the casing and operating parts being broken away or omitted to show details of construction.

Fig. ,2 is an end elevation of the carriage of the typewriter of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the typewriter carriage, certain parts of the carriage being omitted or broken away.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the typewriter carriage, portions of the carriage being broken away or omitted and a portion 013 the hammer being indicated.

Fig. 5 is a vertical, longitudinal section of a portion of the card punch and holder portion of the carriage, taken generally on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4, the card and a portion of the hammer being indicated.

Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the card punch and holder portion of the carriage taken generallyon the line of 66 of Fig. 3, a portion of the scale being broken away for convenience of illustration. I

Fig. 7 is a vertical section of the card punch and holder portion of the carriage, taken on the line 77 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 8 is a vertical section of the card punch and holder portion of the carriage, taken generally along the axis of one of the punches and showing a card inserted and ready for punching.

Fig. 9 is a section similar to Fig. 8 after the punch has been actuated for punching the card and holding it in indexed position during typing.

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary horizontal section taken through one of the card punches along the line 10-10 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 11 .is a somewhat diagrammatic view of a card punched andtyped-onthe machine of the present invention.

-Referring now to.. the. drawings, the machine of the present inventionproduces cards such as the card 15 of Fig. 1 1. This card may bea .more .or less conventional filing card which may, desired,.fhave a corner 16 cut olf to clearly indicate if, through. inadvertence, the card should become .invertedor reversed. The present machine is used to punch a pair ofholes 19 and 20 in the card, the hole 19 being circular and the hole 29 being oval and having its major axis aligned with the center.

of the hole 19, and also to type a single line 17 on the card. The card 15 is intended to be photographed subsequently, together withpreceding and following cards, to compose columns of listings, the holes 19 and 20 serving to positioii each card during photographing.

The present invention will be described as applied to a typewriter known in the. trade as a Vari-Typer, although the invention is capable, with certain modifications, of being applied to other kinds of typewriters. In general, the typewriter shown in Fig. l is a standard model Vari-Typer produced by the Vari-Typer Corporation, modified as herein described but otherwise a standard commercial machine old in the art.

The typewriter of Fig. 1 has a carriage generally indicated as 21, which is mounted on a guide 22 for transverse movement in the conventional manner past a common printing point 24. The carriage 21 is operatively associated with suitable conventional mechanism, not shown, for progressing it past the printing point 24 as the individual type keys 25, only a few of which are shown, are actuated to effect the typing operation. An anvil 26, atfixed to the frame, not shown, of the typewriter has one or more shuttles 27, hearing embossed type mounted thereon, for movement about the periphery of the anvil under control of the type keys 25 for presenting selected characters of type at the printing point 24. A hammer 29 (Figs. 4 and 5) is actuated by wellknown mechanism, not shown, to drive a card 15, supported by the carriage 21, against the selected type character to receive the typed impression. A type ribbon 30, which is preferably of the single-use, carbon-paper type, is progressed. past the printing point 24 between the card 15 and the shuttle 27. The general organization of carriage, hammer, type shuttle and ribbon is old in the art and is shown and described more completely in Patent 2,007,229 of July 9, 1935, issued on the invention of Frank Trego, and Patent 1,936,594 of November 28, 1933, issued on the invention of Charles A. Fuchs, to which reference is made for a more complete disclosure. 1

The carriage 21 of the typewriter of the present inventron has a frame composed of a pair of end members 31 and 32 (see Fig. 3) which are linked by several longitudinal members, including a rod 34 secured on the front edge of the end members and a rod 35 secured adacent the back edge of the end members. This carriage IS similar to the carriage of the present Vari-Typer except that the feed rolls and associated parts have been removed and a card punching and holding mechanism is secured .within the carriage for punching the card 15 and holding it during typing.

The card holding and punching portion 36 of the carnage comprises a pair of slightly spaced, parallel vertical plates 37 and 39 which extend longitudinally of the carriage, the spacing between the plates being several times the thickness of the card so as to readily receive the card 15. Preferably, the top edge of the rear plate 39 is slightly higher than the top edge of the front plate 37, and the top edges of the front and rear plates are located below the level of the shuttle 27 and the head of the hammer 29, respectively. The top adjacent corners of the plate are chamfered or beveled to facilitate insertion of a card. The vertical plates 37 and 39 are joined adacent their left and bottom edges by the spacer strips 40 and 41 (Figs. 3 and a series of screws penetrating the spacer strips and the plates.

The assembly comprising the vertical plates 37 and 39 is supported in the carriage 21 by a pair of end frames 44, 44 (see Figs. 3, 2 and 6), each end frame having a vertically slotted central portion 45 for recelvmg the vertical plate assembly, a series of screws penetrating the end frames 44, 44 and the plates 37-39 to hold the parts in assembled relation.

Each end frame 44 is provided with a rearwardly extending portion 46 having a rearwardly open slot or notch 47 adapted to receive the rod 35 of the frame of the carriage 21. Each end frame 44 also has a forwardly extending portion 49 which is positioned to extend immediately beneath the rod 34 of the frame of the carriage 21, the forward portions 49, 49 of the end frames 44, 44 being secured to that rod. Accordingly, each end frame 44 is supported by the notch 47 being engaged about the rod 35 and the forward extension of the frame being secured to the underside of rod 34, so as to hold the card holding and punching portion 36 of the carriage immovable within the carriage frame.

A series of three punches 50 and 51, 51 (Fig. 4) are mounted on the rear face of the rear vertical plate 39,

the punch shanks being received Within the bushings 52 and 54, 54, respectively. The left-hand punch 50 is preferably of round cross section, and the other two punches 51, 51 are preferably of oval cross section, the bores of the bushings being shaped correspondingly. The shanks of the punches 50 and 51, 51 are provided with enlarged heads 55 and 56, 56, respectively (see Figs. 8 and and a spring 57 is located between the head of each punch and mounting flanges 59 and 60, 60, respectively, on the forward ends of the bushings 52 and 54, 54, the spring serving to retract the punches to release the card after typing.

The punches 50 and 51, 51 operate through holes 61 and 62, 62, respectively, in the rear vertical plate 39 and holes 64 and 65, 65 in the front vertical plate 37, the holes 64 and 65, 65 being carefully machined to serve as dies with the punches to accurately punch the holes 19 and in the cards. The pair of holes 61, 64 is shown in Fig. 8 and one pair of the pairs of holes 62, 65 is shown in Fig. 10. If desired, the forward ends of the holes 64 and 65, 65 may be bevelled or chamfered to facilitate passage of the punchings from the cards.

A small box 63, which may be moulded of clear plastic, has a partially open side positioned against the front of vertical plate 37 to catch the punchings, the box being 4 held in place by spring clips 68, 68 secured to the plate and being removable for emptying.

The bushings 52 and 54, 54 are held in position on the rear surface of the rear vertical plate 39 by pairs of screws, such as screw 66 in Fig. 8, passing through the flanges 59 and 60, respectively. In order to locate the bushings more accurately, pairs of guide pins, such as pins 67, 67 in Fig. 10, may be provided extending rearwardly from the vertical plate 39 and received within holes in the flanges. In addition, a pin 69 (Fig. 10) extends rearwardly from each bushing 54 and is slidingly received within a hole 70 in the head 56 of the punch 51 to prevent any rotation of the punch within the bushing. Inasmuch as the punch 50 is round, rotation of that punch within the bushing is not objectionable and a guide pin to prevent rotation is unecessary.

The punches 50 and 51, 51 are operated by a series of rotary cams 71, 73, 71 engaged respectively with the heads 55, 56, 56 of the punches and having flat sides in a common plane. The rotary cams are nonrotatably mounted on a shaft 72 extending longitudinally of the carriage and journaled within the rearwardly extending portions 46, 46 of the end frames 44, 44. The shaft 72 terminates adjacent the left-hand end of the carriage, and a lever 74 projecting radially from the left-hand end of the shaft serves to operate the shaft for punching movement and retraction of the punches. A knob 75 may be provided on the outer end of the lever 74, if desired. A pair of collars 76, 76 may be provided on the shaft 72 to limit endwise movement of the shaft within the end frames 44, 44.

For punching the shorter cards about 5" in length, only the left-hand punch 50 and the middle punch 51 are efiective, the right-hand punch 51 being positioned beyond the end of the card and merely operating idly when a card is punched.

In the composition of copy having a longer line length, or wherein it is desired to use standard tabulating cards that are of proper size to be punched for coding certain information on the card and used with sorting or tabulating machines such as made by International Business Machine Corp., the cards are of greater length. It is desirable for the handling of such cards to have the hole 20 adjacent the right edge of the enlarged card to secure better alignment during photographing and to leave the central portion of the card free for punching holes for coding information on the card, the coding holes being used for the sorting or tabulating function of the cards.

Accordingly, the cam 73 (Fig. 4) for the central punch has a laterally projecting collar or hub 78 provided with a longitudinally extending slot 82 which receives a pin 83 radially extending from the shaft 72. The cam 73 may be moved by hand longitudinally of the shaft 72 so that the cam will be laterally displaced from its punch 51 sufiiciently so that upon oscillating the shaft for punching longer cards the cam will merely turn idly without oper ating the punch.

A lug 77 (see Fig. 2), aflixed to the shaft 72, limits turning of the shaft in the direction to operate the punches. Upon reverse turning of the shaft 72, the heads 55 and 56 of the punches 50, 51, 51 are engaged with the flat sides of the rotary earns 71, 73, 71, the punches being retracted and the heads of the punches being pressed against the flat sides of the cams by the respective springs 57 and preventing accidental rotation of the shaft and cams.

A more or less conventional scale 79 may be mounted on the end frames 44, 44 by a pair of stanchions 80, 80 (Fig. 3), the scale aiding in centering the lines to be typed on the cards 15 and in preserving uniform alignment of the left end of the typed line. An index 81 (Fig. 1) may be provided on the case of the typewriter in order to register with the scale 79.

In operation of the machine of the present invention the lever 74 is positioned as indicated in Fig. 1, propjecting generally vertically. A card 15 is inserted within the carriage between the vertical plates 37 and 39 with the left-hand and bottom edges of the cards against the spacer strips 40 and 41 respectively. The lever 74 is then pulled forwardly until the lug 77 strikes a portion of the carriage, the punch 50 and one punch 51 being driven forwardly through the card 15. The card is then held by the punches and between the vertical plates 37 and 39 with the upper portion of the card exposed above the edges of the vertical plates for typing. The carriage is moved to the right against the left-hand margin stop (not shown), and the line is'typed. After typing the line, the lever 74 is returned to its initial, generally vertical position, thus permitting the respective springs 57 to retract the punches 50 and 51 and release the card, after which the card can be withdrawn from the carriage and a succeeding card inserted.

Inasmuch as the cards 15 are actually punched and held at the time of the typing operation by the punches 50 and 51, an absolutely uniform relationship of the punched holes 19 and 20 of the card to the typed line 17 is established. Subsequently, when the series of cards is being photographed in column composition, the cards may be oriented for photographing by pins received within the holes 19 and 20 of the card, thereby locating the card for photographing in relation to the holes and the typed line, which were both formed on the card while it was in the typewriter, rather than relying on positioning of the typed line from a margin of the card or other physical characteristic which was created in an entirely separate operation correlated to the typing of the line. The advantage of the method and machine of the present invention lies in absolute uniformity of positioning of the line relative to the holes, which provides perfect column alignment of the composed copy.

I claim:

1. In a typewriter having means for selectively typing characters at a common printing point, a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a pair of closely spaced, longitudinally extending members adapted for re ceiving and supporting a card therebetween to be typed on, a pair of punches fixedly supported on one of the members and cooperating with a pair of holes in the other member for punching a card received between the members for typing, and means for actuating the punches to cause them to punch the card, enter the holes in said other member, and remain Within the holes in the card and the other member.

2. In a typewriter having means for selectively typing characters at a common printing point, a carriage traversed past the printing point having a pair of closely spaced, longitudinally extending members adapted for receiving and supporting a card therebetween to be typed on, at least one punch fixedly supported on one of the members and cooperating with a hole in the other member for punching a card received between the members for typing, and means for actuating the punch and holding it actuated with the card impaled on the punch during the typing operation.

3. In a typewriter having means for selectively typing characters at a common printing point, a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a pair of closely spaced, longitudinally extending, vertical plates adapted for receiving and supporting a card therebetween to be typed on, at least one punch fixedly supported on one of the plates and cooperating with a hole in the other plate for punching a card received between the plates for typing, and means for actuating the punch and holding it actuated with the card impaled on the punch during the typing operation.

4. The method of producing a card having a typed line thereon and a registration hole for positioning and indexing the card during photographing of the line, comprising: punching the registration hole in the card with a punch fixedly mounted on the carriage of a typewriter, and then typing the line while holding the card immovable on the carriage and impaled on the punch.

5. The method of producing a card having a typed line thereon and a registration hole for positioning and indexing the card during photographing of the line, comprising: punching the registration hole in the card with a punch fixedly mounted on the carriage of a typewriter and typing the line while holding the card immovable on the carriage and impaled on the punch.

6. The method of producing a card having a typed line thereon and a pair of registration holes for positioning and indexing the card during photographing of the line, comprising: punching the registration holes in the card with a pair of punches fixedly mounted on the carriage of a typewriter, and then typing the line while the punches are still engaged within the holes.

7. The method of producing a card having a typed line thereon and a registration hole for positioning and indexing the card during photographing of the line, comprising: punching the registration hole in the card with a punch fixedly mounted on the carriage of a typewriter, and then typing the line while the punch is still engaged within the hole.

8. In a rear-strike typewriter having embossed type carried on a shuttle and indexed at a common printing point, a type ribbon fed past the shuttle at the printing point, and a hammer for driving work to be typed on against the ribbon and type at the printing point; a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a pair of closely spaced, longitudinally extending, vertical plates adapted for receiving and supporting a card therebetween to be typed on, and a pair of punches supported on one of the plates for punching a card received between the plates for typing, the upper edges of the plates being below the level of the printing point.

9. In a rear-strike typewriter having embossed type carried on a shuttle and indexed at a common printing point, a type ribbon fed past the shuttle at the printing point, and a hammer for driving work to be typed on against the ribbon and type at the printing point; a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a pair of closely spaced, longitudinally extending, vertical plates adapted for receiving and supporting a card therebetween to be typed on, at least one punch supported on one of the plates for punching a card receive-d between the plates for typing, and means for actuating the punch and holding it actuated with the card impaled on the punch during the typing operation.

10. In a rear-strike typewriter having embossed type carried on a shuttle and indexed at a common printing point, a. type ribbon fed past the shuttle at the printing point, and a hammer for driving work to be typed on against the ribbon andtype at the printing point; a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a card receptacle adapted for receiving a card to be typed, punches fixedly mounted on the carriage for punching a card received within the card receptacle and means for actuating the punches and holding them actuated with the card impaled on the punches during the printing operation.

11. In a rear-strike typewriter having embossed type carried on a shuttle and indexed at a common printing point, a type ribbon fed past the shuttle at the printing point, and a hammer for driving work to be typed on against the ribbon and type at the printing point; a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a card receptacle adapted for receiving a card to be typed, a pair of punches fixedly mounted on the carriage for punching a pair of holes in a card received within the card receptacle and means for actuating the punches and holding them actuated with the card impaled on the punches during the printing operation.

12. In a rear-strike typewriter having embossed type carried on a shuttle and indexed at a common printing point, a type ribbon fed past the shuttle at the printing point, and a hammer for driving work to be typed on against the ribbon and type at the printing point; a carriage traversed past the printing point and having a pair of closely spaced, longitudinally extending, vertical plates adapted for receiving and supporting a card therebetween to be typed on, a pair of punches supported on one of the plates for punching a pair of holes in a card received between the plates for typing and means for actuating 8 the punches and holding them actuated with the card impaled on the punches during the printing operation.

"References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Trego July 18, 1933 2,304,277 Pitman Dec. 8, 1942 2,649,950 Endrich Aug. 25, 1953 

